In 1953, a young woman played Desdemona in a college production othello In Mumbai. The great theater director Ibrahim Alkazi, who was in the audience, later invited him to join his theater group. That young woman was Vijaya Mehta, and this began a relationship with theater that lasted throughout her life. He died on June 30 at the age of 91.

Born Vijaya Jaywant on November 4, 1934 in Vadodara to parents who were members of the Theosophical Society, she grew up surrounded by the world of Indian cinema and yet remained untouched by its charms. Nalini Jaywant and Shobhana Samarth were his aunts. Nutan and Tanuja were his cousin sisters. During his first marriage to Harin Khote, Durga Khote was his mother-in-law. Mainstream cinema was virtually a family legacy. Nevertheless, he turned his back on it and chose theatre, which was more difficult and less glamorous.

Under the guidance of Alkazi and later Adi Marzban (the finest writer-director of Parsi theatre), Vijaya honed an art that reshaped modern Marathi theatre. In the early 1960s, he co-founded Rangayan in Mumbai with playwright Vijay Tendulkar and actors Sriram Lagoo and Arvind Deshpande. Rangayana pushed against the conventions of a stage – one that relied heavily on mythology and spectacle – and introduced audiences to a more rigorous, contemporary type of storytelling. Vijaya directed some of the defining productions of his generation: Sakharam Binder, Hayavadana, Ghasiram Kotwal, Wada Chirebandi And Male, Which had more than 1,500 shows.

Vijay Mehta with actors Nana Patekar and Vikram Gokhale during the launch of his book. Responsibility.
| Photo courtesy: PTI

For Mohit Takalkar, one of the most respected contemporary directors of Marathi theatre, Vijaya’s importance was both personal and professional. “She watched my plays, which was a big thing for me,” he recalls. “When she responded, it was not like a guru, but like a conversation between a director and another director. There was no sugar coating it.”

“She had an amazing vantage point between the experimental and the commercial and she just kept pushing it.”Mohit Takalkar

What Takalkar admired most was his refusal to choose between rigor and accessibility. He worked with the most sought-after playwrights of his generation – Vijay Tendulkar, Mahesh Elkunchwar, Chintaman Trimbak Khanolkar, Jaywant Dalvi and Girish Karnad – and found ways to bring their work to audiences without diluting it. “She had an amazing vantage point between the experimental and the commercial and she kept pushing it,” he says, pointing to a scene. vada incision This is clear evidence of what made him irreplaceable as a director.

In the early 1960s, Vijaya Mehta co-founded Rangayan in Mumbai with playwright Vijay Tendulkar. | Photo courtesy: Shailendra Yashwant

“The most iconic scene in modern Marathi theater when Vahini wears all that jewelery is an absolutely hair-raising moment. I have seen four productions of it vada incision And none of them had that much of an impact. like a director right here Maid (as Vijaya was fondly called) comes.” He says that writing alone does not create such a moment. The director does.

In 1973, his collaboration with East German director Fritz Bennewitz began strange justice circleBrecht’s Marathi adaptation Caucasian chalk circleBrought Indian theater to the Brecht Festival in Berlin. He introduced Indian audiences to Eugene Ionesco’s Theater of the Absurd. She understood that great theater knows no limits and has spent her career acting on this belief.

Vijaya took that thinking forward as president of the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai. Under his leadership, the NCPA became a meeting place for some of the most important theater figures of the 20th century – Peter Brook, Eugenio Barba, Ariane Manochkin, Jerzy Grotowski and Richard Schechner – all bringing their work to Mumbai, organizing workshops and training programmes. Vijaya herself participated in many of them.

Takalkar credits his three short books based on his lecture series on rhythm, tempo, music and space as essential reading for anyone stepping onto the stage. “I always study them before the workshop. It’s like reading Peter Brook.” empty space. My notebooks are full of symbols,” he says.

Vijaya entered cinema relatively late. His first characteristic, Rao Saheb In 1985, she received the National Film Award in the Best Supporting Actress category. Pestonji As in Shyam Benegal’s roles Kalyug and Govind Nihalani’s team. In each of them, she brought the same precision and emotional intelligence that she had spent decades building on the stage. He also wrote his autobiography, responsibility (translated into English residence of color), which provides readers with a rare, clear account of the development of modern Indian theatre.

Honors also kept increasing – Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in 1975, Padma Shri in 1986, META Lifetime Achievement Award and Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Ratna in 2012.

But his real legacy was the people he shaped – Nana Patekar, Ashok Saraf, Neena Kulkarni, Vikram Gokhale, Reema Lagoo and Bharti Achrekar – and others who passed through his orbit and emerged as better artists. She leaves behind a body of work that will offset the grief of her loss. She also leaves behind a way of approaching the stage with honesty and complete seriousness. This is a formidable legacy to uphold.

published – July 07, 2026 05:15 PM IST